The battle for top billing on the search results page is fierce – and sites with fresh, relevant content are the ones that come out on top. Sounds like an easy formula, but maintaining SEO performance is often easier said than done. As any marketer will tell you, continuously creating, publishing and promoting original content is no small task. That is why many are turning to content curation tools that help find, organize and share content online to ensure that their site is constantly delivering updated, highly topical, keyword-rich content – making it a natural winner in the battle of Search Engine Optimization.

SEO performance is top of mind for most marketers in today’s digital world. Most marketers I speak with want to know how simply generating content is going to propel them to page one of the search results. It is important for marketers to understand that generating content is not the only thing about curation that will translate into better SEO performance. In an excerpt from my company’s new e-book, here is a list of ways that content curation allows you to fight above your weight class in the battle for first page results.

Optimizing for short-tail keywords: The content you curate for your chosen topic will automatically include the most popular search terms within your area of interest. The quantity of references to those key terms across a wide range of content will help boost your search standing

Increasing the opportunity for inbound links: As readers and other industry publishers discover the value of your content, they will link to you as a trusted resource. In addition, sources you’ve curated may link back to you.

Increasing update frequency: Curated sites are typically updated on a regular basis. Search engines actively reward up-to-date sites by indexing them more often than less current ones.

Integrating long-tail keywords: The diversity and depth of content on a well-curated site naturally incorporates many key long-tail keywords that help to drive niche-targeted traffic.

Helping you identify trending keywords: As a topic matures, new keywords emerge. Your curated content will help you recognize these patterns and you can use what you learn to optimize new content.

Marketers are finding that curating content on their site is producing results. Just take Bob Meyer president and co-founder of MPS Connect as an example. “Every search that is in our market niche, we’re on the first page at least once.,” he says. “This is huge for us, because we see a 10 percent growth in page views per month and a big part of those new visitors come from Google searches.”

As most know, the reason SEO performance is so important to marketers is because the easier a site is to locate on a search engine, the more Web traffic that site will get.

“Companies that blog get 55 percent more traffic,” Marta Kagan, Hubspot Director of Brand and Buzz, explained in a blog post called “12 Mind-Blowing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know” that the more you blog, the more pages Google has to index, and the more inbound links you’re likely to have. “ The more pages and inbound links you have, the higher you rank on search engines like Google – thus the greater amount of traffic to your Website,” she writes. The same logic applies to content curated sites.

Content curation tools that allow for both curation and original content, however, are imperative for the SEO success formula. Content Marketing Institute Editor Gary Kim puts it in basic terms. “You won’t be successful if all you do is produce your own content,” he says. “No matter how many talented people write for you, there are many other writers out there publishing great content elsewhere. Why wouldn’t you want to produce a product that includes all the best content by all the best writers?”

Consistently producing the best relevant content will without a doubt send a site to the top of the search results. It is important to also note, however, that those who click to the site and see well-organized and continually updated content are encouraged to come back and will view the site as a valuable resource. Best of all, sites that have the right mix of curated and original content have a better chance at capturing the attention of prospects who are actively seeking information on the topic of which the site is about. A curated site is easily turned into a lead generation tool through SEO and the ability to provide multiple touch points for the target audience.

Content curation is a game changer when it comes to SEO performance. The process of finding, organizing and sharing content practically guarantees placement on page one of the search results. Marketers who are curating are seeing improvement in SEO and using those results to evaluate their content curation efforts. VP of Marketing at Aternity Donna Parent puts it simply: “We are very pleased to be listed organically on the first page of ‘end user experience’ with our site. That was a key goal that has been sustained since earlier this year (so about 6 months after implementation). This was and remains a key metric for us and proves the value.”

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

I totally disagree with the previous two comments. Most Google attacks are focused on poor quality content. I have yet to see a single article written by someone who was not a native English speaker that made any sense.

Many marketers then add insult to injury by spinning and then redistributing the spun content. I have never seen a single spun article that made sense either. It’s this poor excuse for marketing that creates issues.

If content curation was not effective sites like Mashable and the Huffington Post would not have the high PR they enjoy. That said the particular Curation Platform that this writer promotes in incredibly expensive. At $1,500.00 a month it is out of the reach of 99% of all small businesses. If you want my money, they are going to have to take a long hard look at their pricing model.

I have only come across one other product which is about 5% of the monthly cost for a whole year! However, that product which I will not endorse either produces poor results. Curated content becomes valuable when the content has been thoroughly reviewed (Yes you actually have to read it to determine its relevance and interest to your audience). Add some remarks of your own to add value and Google will love you.

Content curation is not just a good idea it is an essential tool if you want to create and promote sites what are authoritative.

Content curation is indeed essential for any marketer. This has also given rise to several niche content curation sites such as Paper.li in recent years. Of late, I have also seen noticeable traffic to my blog from such sites. And its not from my content but from other independent users who have used and referenced my content on their curation approaches.